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Superior Court of California

County of Santa Cruz

Permissive e-filing of all criminal pleadings (motions, responses, motions to continue, etc.) begins 9/4/17. Currently, just trial pleadings and documents(motions in limine, trial briefs, witness lists, jury instructions, etc.) are required to be e-filed. Mandatory e-filing of all criminal documents will probably begin in January 2018.

Limited Court Services Days – 2017

Wednesday, November 22 and December 18-29 will only have 1 courtroom open in each courthouse (Santa Cruz and Watsonville). All matters, civil and criminal, will be heard in the same courtroom by a single Judge. No jury trials will be heard. Attorneys are encouraged to avoid setting matters on these dates and to reschedule cases that are currently set on these dates – to leave space open for in-custody criminal cases, TROs, etc. The Clerk’s Office will maintain regular hours on these days.

Tyler Technologies sent out an announcement earlier this week regarding the availability of eChecks as a payment option beginning on July 25 for some courts.

An eCheck is a type of payment account that performs an electronic ACH withdrawal from your checking account. When setting up the new payment account, you will enter the account number and routing number of your checking account.

Have you attached your Proof of Service by Electronic Service Provider (if appropriate)? Have you bookmarked your Exhibits? Have you redacted attorney-client/personal information? Refer to this handy eFiling Checklist in the link below to improve your eFiling experience with the courts!

If you use our eFiling portal directly (so you do the data entry and upload the documents) via efile.saylerlegal.com ~ The costs work like this:

You pay the court for all its fees as you go (none of the charges you incur at the time of the filing are from Sayler Legal). You get a receipt emailed to you from the court and you can also review all of your eFiling expenses from the court in the Reports Tab. Once per month we will invoice you $3.00 per envelope (compared to many of our competitors that start at $9.95 and up per envelope). If you’re invoicing your clients as you go, just add $3.00 to whatever you were charged by the court to cover our fee.

eServe Opposing Counsel – FREE, as you are performing this act using our portal. Our portal status also reveals when opposing has opened the email that you’ve sent.

Concierge Service – We can pick up your documents or you can email them to us and we do the data-entry and upload the documents for you. You incur the filing fees/convenience fees charged by the court, and our fee is $25 per envelope for the first filing of the day, and $23.50 thereafter that day. We do pay the court’s $3-$5 transaction fee out of the $25 (not you).

On June 6, 2016, public phone hours for all clerk’s offices will change to 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Walk in hours will remain 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Restraining Order Filings: Beginning July 5, 2016, all restraining orders will now be filed and heard at the Watsonville Courthouse. Any type of civil restraining order that was previously filed at the Santa Cruz Courthouse will now be filed and heard at the Watsonville Courthouse (this change will be included in new local rules published on July 1, 2016). For emergency situations, restraining orders may be filed at the Santa Cruz Courthouse. These will be scanned to Watsonville. This will only be allowed for the initial filing. Any subsequent filings must be filed at the Watsonville Courthouse. Civil restraining orders will be heard Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. and domestic violence/elder abuse Thursday at 8:30 a.m., both in Department D. Civil restraining orders filed in June will most likely receive a July court date in Watsonville. Electronic Filing: On August 29, 2016, electronic filing will be mandatory for all noncriminal and family law filings. Permissive electronic filing started in March and is going well. Each week we are seeing an increase in electronic filing users. On August 29, the court will no longer accept attorney filings at the court window. Please let me know if you have any questions. Sasha Morgan Santa Cruz Superior Court Director of Operations 1 Second Street Watsonville, CA 95076 (831) 786-7335 sasha.morgan@santacruzcourt.org

Restraining Order Filings: Beginning July 5, 2016, all restraining orders will now be filed and heard at the Watsonville Courthouse. Civil restraining orders will be heard Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. in Department B. Domestic violence/elder abuse orders will be heard Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. in Department D. Civil restraining orders filed in June will most likely receive a July court date in Watsonville. Please let me know if you have any questions. Sasha Morgan Santa Cruz Superior Court Director of Operations 1 Second Street Watsonville, CA 95076 (831) 786-7335 sasha.morgan@santacruzcourt.org

Local court rules require that mediation briefs be filed 5 days prior to the mediation date. Effective immediately, if no mediation briefs are filed 5 days prior to the designated mediation date, the court will vacate the mediation date and set the case for an Order to Show Cause Regarding Sanctions for Failure to File Mediation Briefs. If one side files a brief, the mediation date will remain on calendar and the judge will determine if sanctions will be imposed on the other party for failure to file their brief. Please let me know if you have any questions. Florence Patten, Supervisor Santa Cruz Civil/Probate Unit 831-420-2359 Florence.Patten@SantaCruzCourt.org

April 26, 2016 – At hearings at the Monterey Court, you may be required to show proof that you posted jury fees. If you cannot prove this, you may be sanctioned. The Clerk’s Office should have this information on record, but for some reason it is not available in the courtrooms. The clerks do not always produce a receipt at the time the jury fees were paid for various reasons. And sometimes you are not provided a receipt from the court at a later date either. If you find yourself in this situation, it is advised you do not show up in court empty handed. Solution: Request a receipt from the clerk’s office as proof of payment prior to your trial date. If Sayler Legal Service advanced this fee on your behalf, you may also request a copy of our invoice with the fee advance denoted as Jury Fees (fee advance). Our invoices do reflect case caption information, substantiating the proof that the jury fees were posted for the case in question.